Dies are used for discharging molten polymers, fluids, slurries, or other substances. Dies deliver at least one lane and at least one layer of a substance by forcing the substance out of a reservoir through a die outlet. The substance is then fed to a roll stack, a substrate, or other receiving element.
To produce multiple lanes of different substances being discharged from the die, multiple channels are formed within the die. In conventional systems, multiple channels are formed by using multi-manifold dies that include three or more die bodies. For example, in a two lane die, one channel is formed between an upper die body and a center die body, and another channel is formed between the center die body and a lower die body. Multi-manifold dies are expensive to manufacture, can be time consuming to assemble, difficult to use, and can be large in size.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved multi-lane die having a more compact design that saves cost and to increases ease of use.